


Right down the line it's been you and me

by makebelieveanything



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe-neighbors, Fate, Fluff, Happy Ending, M/M, Mentions of canon drug use, Mentions of canon violence, Multiple Alternate Universes, Multiverse, Original Character - Freeform, alternate universe -kidfic, alternate universe-cupid, companion fic, deaf!AndrewMinyard, fae, nothing graphic, some quotes from canon non-graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:00:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26452240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makebelieveanything/pseuds/makebelieveanything
Summary: This story starts with a book, as most things do - or if they don’t, as most things ought to. More specifically it starts with three books, set in a fictional world filled with sports and mafias, trust and loyalty, boyfriends and found families; all of it combined in a series that is simultaneously engaging and slightly absurd. It’s a story that has been written and rewritten - in different worlds and different times and different languages. A story that spans generations, and seems to inexplicably transcend the very bounds of time and space.Granted, Ray is not aware of the scope and breadth of their reach when she originally picks them up. (In all honesty, she may never be fully aware of their significance.) The books are an odd find, an almost impossible find, shelved - or more accurately - stored, in three separate boxes, in three separate garages, all separately located by one girl, on one Friday afternoon in early August.  This story may start with a book, but it is more Ray’s story, or a part of it, than it is the books’.
Relationships: Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 12
Kudos: 19
Collections: AFTG Exchange Fall 2020





	Right down the line it's been you and me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wishbonetea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wishbonetea/gifts).



> This is a gift for @wishbonetea for the AFTG Fall Exchange. It is a companion/background piece to their work [me, you, and the multiverse](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24541006). I highly suggest you read that first. 
> 
> @wishbonetea, I really hope you enjoy this I much as I did making it. I absolutely adore your fic and once this idea popped into my head I couldn't stop thinking about it. I really hope it does justice to the amazing fic you wrote to begin with. 
> 
> Thank you to my beautiful beta [justadreamfox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/justadreamfox/pseuds/justadreamfox). Also a shoutout to [gluupor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gluupor) for being an amazing supporter and for content reading. Also thank you to all my beautiful friends and creators who supported me in this endeavor and let me use pieces of their writing to complete this project. 
> 
> Disclaimer: All the fics quoted in this piece are not my writing. They are documented in italics, and I received the express permission of all the creators before using them. All fics are quoted and linked in the footnotes - if you haven't read them you definitely should. They are all absolutely amazing. Any quoted content from the canon material is the property of Nora Sakovic

** Many men would take the death sentence without a whimper to escape the life sentence which fate carries in her hand.-T.E. Lawrence **

Most people will tell you: fate is not always kind. Most storytellers, however, would argue that fate is neither kind nor cruel, neither good nor evil; fate just is. Life is rarely what we expect, and never what we planned - but if people never choose to embark, they will never know whether fate chose to intervene or not. Whether the strings of time are already woven, or slowly weave as they go along, each person is responsible for their own story - finding their own writers, their own futures, their own endings.

This story starts with a book, as most things do - or if they don’t, as most things ought to. More specifically it starts with three books, set in a fictional world filled with sports and mafias, trust and loyalty, boyfriends and found families; all of it combined in a series that is simultaneously engaging and slightly absurd. It’s a story that has been written and rewritten - in different worlds and different times and different languages. A story that spans generations, and seems to inexplicably transcend the very bounds of time and space.

Granted, Ray is not aware of the scope and breadth of their reach when she originally picks them up. (In all honesty, she may never be fully aware of their significance.) The books are an odd find, an almost impossible find, shelved - or more accurately - stored, in three separate boxes, in three separate garages, all separately located by one girl, on one Friday afternoon in early August. This story may start with a book, but it is more Ray's story, or a part of it, than it is the books’.

* * *

Ray and Renee had been visiting estate sales, garage sales, storage auctions, and any second-hand stores they could find in search of cheap furniture, obscure artwork, and inconspicuous books. It was in three such sales that Ray happened to come across a series of intriguing books. They caught her eye because of their minimalist detailing; where most other books tried to draw the eye with famous movie stars or colorful, overly elaborate covers, these books were predominately white. The title and conservative graphics on the covers were depicted in simple orange and black, a stark contrast to their empty backgrounds.

Although Ray admittedly did not _need_ more books in her life, having long since filled all the shelves in her office as well as her apartment, there was a distinct lack of logic when it came to acquiring more books - one that any literature major understood. So it was that those three books ended up returning to Ray’s new apartment that Friday afternoon, along with a couple volumes of obscure Russian poetry and a new side table with a small built in shelf that would conveniently house the books she’d purchased.

Ray had recently moved into her own apartment off campus after graduation. She was determined to finally have a place she could call her own - especially after her brother and cousin had moved on to the next phases in their lives, leaving Ray alone with the quiet safety of her PhD thesis. Thus, on this weekend, Ray found herself with nothing better to do than curl up on her leather couch with her newly attained books and delve into a story that would, unbeknownst to her, challenge the very way she perceived reality.

* * *

All For The Game  
_The Foxhole Court_

In the beginning a short, unassuming boy joins a high school Exy team.  
(The boy may be real, he may also be fictional.)

A short time later, because the boy joined the Exy team, a college Exy coach comes to offer him a sports scholarship. This coach brings with him an Exy legend.  
(The legend is really only a scared boy, but he’s still considered a legend.)

The unassuming boy is also scared and tries to run away, and runs directly into another equally short but entirely self-assertive boy, or more specifically his Exy racquet.  
(This boy also may be real, but he may be fictional as well.)

Not much later, in the college Exy stadium (everything eventually revolves around Exy), the two boys clash again - this time with words.

The maybe real, decidedly self-assertive boy makes an observation, _“Your loose ends aren’t adding up.”_

To which the unassuming, potentially fictional boy responds, _“I’m not a math problem.”_

 _“But I’ll still solve you.”_ [1]

It sounds like a threat, it also sounds like a promise.  
(It ends up being both.)

These two boys gravitate around each other, like the earth and the moon, always circling, always dancing, never knowing who is two steps ahead and who is two steps behind, but wholly uncaring as long as they are both still spinning.

The self assertive boy is named Andrew and the supposedly unassuming boy is named Neil, at least for now. (The scared boy who is more boy than legend is named Kevin, but this isn’t his story.) In Andrew’s attempt to unravel the mysteries that are Neil Josten, he coerces, and intimidates, and basically demands answers from the unknown, disconcerting boy. Eventually he receives enough answers to curb his distrustful nature; he learns Neil is a runaway - not from a place (which is only a little bit of a lie), or from a person (which is a lot of a lie), but from his life (which is actually the truth) - so he asks Neil the one question that really starts everything:

_“Then why did you come here?” Andrew asked._

_“Because I’m tired,” Neil said, trying to sound defeated. It didn’t take much effort. “I have nowhere else to go, and I’m too jealous of Kevin to stay away from him. He knows what it’s like to hate every day of his life, to wake up afraid every day, but he’s got you at his back telling him everything’s going to be okay. He has everything, even when he’s lost everything and I’m--” Neil didn’t want to say it, but the word was already there, broken and pathetic between them, “--nothing. I’ll always have and be nothing.”_

_Andrew pushed Neil’s hand out of the way and stared Neil down with nothing between them. Neil didn’t understand the look on his face…Whatever this look was, it was dark and intense enough to swallow Neil whole._

_“Let me stay,” Neil said quietly. “I’m not ready to give this up yet.”_

__That strange look left Andrew’s eyes. His expression cleared to stony indifference and he let go of Neil. “Keep it if you can. You and I both know it won’t last long.”_ [2] _

**_\-------------------_ **

_There are many other worlds; this one may be a dream. _

In a small slice of another world, in a time that is happening now, but also happened many years ago, there exists a dreamscape that could be considered a garden, and also could be considered a cage, where a young boy meets a young girl. (They are only sometimes a girl, but usually they’re a boy. Sometimes their name is Emma, sometimes Alex, sometimes they don’t have a name at all, but either way their names are never their real one.)

The boy who is always a boy is named Andrew, and although he thinks this is his dreamscape because he’s the one asleep, it isn’t actually his prison. Still, Andrew continues to find himself in this particular dream, with this particular boy (who is really a fae halfling, but technically, truly, a boy), so he decides to ask the boy for a truth, and as the rules of reciprocity go, he offers one to the boy in return. It goes like this:

_The boy lies down on the grass, clearly exhausted. After a long stretch of silence, he asks._

_“Are you going to hurt me?”_

_He's looking at Andrew as he waits for the answer, and Andrew doesn't have it in himself to lie._

_He's even more reluctant to utter the truth._

_“I don't see why,” he settles._

_***_

_Andrew asks questions every dream they meet. Sometimes he gets answers, sometimes evasions. The boy always asks the one question._

_“Are you going to hurt me?”_

_Andrew's answer is the same. He pretends to not see the boy smiling at the answer._

______________________

_He could tell the boy wasn't ok. He wasn't hurt, judging from how he kept moving atop the thin branch and not falling off. But he was restless, scared even. His hands running through russet hair again and again._

_"What's wrong with you?”_

_It came out harsher than he'd intended, and Andrew felt like a dick for a second. The boy just sighed and tumbled off the tree. He lay down next to Andrew. Close enough to touch but not actually touching. Andrew caught a hint of his pine and woodsmoke scent again._

_“I'll tell you a truth, and you'll give me one of your own,” the boy said, looking up at the tree. “For a few months now, I haven't been able to see properly. I can't see my own future, or my mother's, or yours.”_

_“What does that mean?”_

_The boy turned on his side, his face inches from Andrew. Raindrops clung to his lashes, reminding Andrew of his tears._

_“It means I'll probably die soon. I've always known I would die young,” he whispered. “But now... I can feel it. Something really bad will happen.”_

_Andrew rolled to his side, staring at the boy. He wasn't joking. There was fear and despair in his face. He truly believed he would die._

_Andrew reached out and rested his hand between them, a wordless invitation. The boy's hand slipped in his and held on._

_“Now tell me a truth,” he whispered. “Would you forget me if I die and you never see me again?” he asked, whisper-soft as the raindrops._

_“No,” Andrew answered, just as soft._

_You are a liar and an idiot and a runaway. But you're my friend. I wouldn't forget you, he wanted to say._

_He didn't say it, but the thoughts were clear on his face._

_The hand in his spasmed. The boy looked on, despair dark in his eyes. “Abram,” he choked out. “Call me Abram. That's my real name.”_

_A part of his real name, Andrew surmised. He spoke the name aloud, tasting it between his lips. Red hair and blue eyes and Abram, finally a name to put his feelings under._

_Abram had apparently used up all his energy. He curled around their clasped hands. Andrew mirrored his pose, offering up as much comfort as he could afford. His hand itched to touch the stretch of red hair thrown over Abram's shoulder._

_Andrew hovered a hand over the hair. Abram nodded. Andrew sunk his hand in his hair and stroked over his scalp lightly. The small action made the boy sigh. His eyes closed and he pushed his head into Andrew's palm, wordlessly asking him to keep going._ [3]

(The boy does not die right now, although something bad may happen, but you’ll have to read that story to find out.)

**_\-------------------_ **

All for the Game  
_The Foxhole Court_

As Neil and Andrew’s story progresses it’s impossible to tell if they are dancing around each other or fighting against each other. One move shoves them apart, the next draws them together. One minute Neil stands alone against the world, the next Andrew stands next to him - offering to stand in front of him: a human shield, built and forged by life to protect the people he cares for. 

Just like before it is both a threat and a promise, but this time they are not both directed at Neil; this is a promise to protect Neil and a threat for anyone who comes to harm him. To Neil, this is salvation.

_Andrew hooked his fingers in the collar of Neil’s shirt and tugged just enough for Neil to feel it. “I know what I’m doing. I knew what I was agreeing to when I took Kevin’s side. I knew what it could cost us and how far I’d have to go. Understand? You aren’t going anywhere. You’re staying here.”_

_Andrew didn’t let go until Neil nodded, and then he reached for Neil’s hand. He took his cigarette back, put it between his lips, and pressed a warm key into Neil’s empty palm. Neil lifted his hand to look at it. The hardware logo engraved in it meant it was a copy. To what, Neil didn’t know, but it only took him a moment to figure it out. Andrew used this key to unlock the front door and then took it off the ring on the porch. Now he was giving it to Neil…_

_Neil looked down at the key in his hand. “Home,” he whispered, needing to hear it aloud. It was a foreign concept to him, an impossible dream. It was frightening and wonderful all at once, and it set his heart racing so fast he thought it’d drum out of his chest._

_“Welcome home, Neil.”_ [4]

* * *

Ray finished the first book in the series just in time to meet Renee for a picnic and to watch the solar eclipse. She felt a fleeting rush of empathy for Neil as she locked up her apartment - her first _home_ \- and she couldn’t help but run her thumb over her own key in a brief moment of sentimentality before she continued on to pick up Renee for what was arguably going to be the biggest celestial event to ever happen in their lifetime.

Ray had always been fascinated by cosmology, ever since she’d started watching scientific documentaries with her twin Aaron. It was one of the rare things the siblings could agree on, but it had been a safe place for both of them. For a theology major, Renee was surprisingly well versed in the subject as well. Ray was unsure where her friend had discovered the fascination given her field of study, but it had been a constant topic of theirs ever since the unlikely pair had met in undergrad.

Renee was a patient, perceptive, and extraordinarily strong woman. The first time Ray met Renee it was at the campus gym late one evening in the spring of her freshman year. Ray had been pummeling the hanging punching bag for at least half an hour - the buzz that had skittered along her skin like lightning all day, leaving her nerves on a hair trigger, had not even begun to subside - when a short girl with white hair, tips dyed in rainbow pastels, stepped into her field of vision and held out a hand towards her.

Ray had reflexively thrown a sloppy punch at the supposed threat which Renee had blocked easily; she was unfazed by the unwarranted attack, but seemed to understand the anxiety running like an undercurrent through Ray’s veins. Although the school gym was closing, Renee had invited Ray out to a nearby, 24 hour gym, and had stayed into the early morning hours boxing with her - or more accurately pounding Ray’s ass into the matts over and over again until she was too sore and tired to be on edge.

It had been the start of an easy friendship: nights spent boxing and afternoons after classes spent drinking coffee and debating the relative importance of their individual fields of study.

This had led to a discussion on the relation of different religions and how their mythos contributed to - or offered explanations of - the commonly accepted origins of the universe. It was an admittedly intricate and profound topic to be discussing over coffee, and not one that Ray ever believed she would fully grasp the extent of, but it was on one such afternoon that Renee broached the topic of the multiverse.

Really, Renee talked about the multiverse on multiple occasions because the full explanation of string theory, wave theory, Copenhagen interpretation, many-worlds interpretation, quantum physics, etcetera couldn’t be described in one sitting - at least not accurately. However, the first time Renee mentioned the idea of the multiverse was the first time Ray realized there may be more to this existence than she ever really imagined.

It was a chilling realization, yet simultaneously a great relief: the idea that there could be other worlds, other universes out there, in the great wide somewhere, where reality was completely different than the one Ray currently lived in.

* * *

In the vastness of the universe, some worlds only exist on paper.

Not all stories exist in written form, or even spoken form. Some stories are sung, some are chanted, some are rapped or spoken in iambic pentameter, some are poems, or limericks, or even haikus. Still others are never written or spoken, never shared with the outside world, residing solely in the subconscious of storykeepers: remembered, loved, and unknowable. 

This particular story is simultaneously all of these things and none of them at the same time. It isn’t traditional, it isn’t a song or a poem, but it is still a story - pieced together bit by bit - and every story, no matter how it is formed, is always worth telling:

** Asshole Twin **

November 26 10:32pm

Hey asshole, are you coming to Thanksgiving or what?  
Don’t make me deal with Luther and Maria alone.

  
November 26 11:13pm

that sounds like a personal problem to me

  
November 27 10:02am

Fuck you  
U coming or not 

  
November 27 10:14am

ya I’ll be there. Think I can convince my cryptid work roommate to be my fake boyfriend for it?

Y. Can’t convince him to be ur real date?

  
November 27 12:49pm

shut ur fuck

* * *

stop stealing my white board to draw your alien shit on -Andrew

Stop writing about monster sightings and kidnappings all over my good printer paper asshole -Neil

**NEW OFFICEMATE**

~~Ned?~~ ~~Nigel?~~ Neil? -->Is suspicious

REASONS:

Why is his hair like _that?_  
Inky feeling?  
His eyes are _blue._ Why do they make you constantly feel like you’re falling down an endless pit?  
Likes _math_  
His cookies are criminally good, but he burnt ramen yesterday  
Alien languages  
Gets along with the grinch librarian  
Morning person DO NOT TRUST   
~~No one can look that hot in sweatpants and an oversized t shirt without the help of human sacrifice~~  
  
---  
  
* * *

Stop muttering -A

I will when you do -N

* * *

Important Questions:

\- Where are the bodies of all of the victims?

\- Why those specific date ranges?

-Why does Neil look like _that_ even though his clothes all look like they came straight from the trash bin?

\- Reprocussions for not completing sacrifice in the time frame?  
  
---  
  
* * *

Thanks for the cookies -A

You can repay me with more of that potato salad you made the other day -N

You are a nuisance. -A

:P -N

* * *

** Gay Cousin **

December 9 6:02pm

Remind me to give andrew hell for lying to us. 

Download image↓ 

~~Do you want to go to my family thanksgiving with me?~~

~~Do you want to go to that cafe you like so much?~~

~~Do you want to go get dinner that wasn’t made by one or the other of us?~~

~~What are you doing on Saturday?~~

~~What are you doing for Christmas?~~

~~Do you want to be my date for Christmas dinner?~~

What are you doing in Andrew’s office? And why are all of them crossed out? Did andrew do that?

No reason. Idk. I found these ones hidden in the bottom of his desk drawer

[keepyoursecrets.gif]  
OMG  
Do you think Andrew tried asking cryptid officemate out via post it?  
Please tell me he did. Ask him right now

I’m not sure he did Try i mean I will when i see him next. I’m not with him rn

What kind of spy are you? I need ANSWERS

And I need to find my brother. Guess neither of us are getting what we want.

_Message not sent_ [try again?]

* * *

** Asshole Twin  **

December 23 2:38pm

Yo. you’re bringing potato salad for dinner right? And Neil has the cookies?

  
Yeah  
Why are you so worked up about it?

Katelyn is freaking out over hosting.  I told her that literally anywhere would be better than Luther and Maria’s again She didn’t find that nearly as conforting as i did

** Asshole Twin  **

December 23 2:39pm

Lol  
Should we come early and help cook?  
Well  
I can cook  
Don’t let neil anywhere near the turkey  
For someone who doesn’t like sweets, he’s onlly really good at making cookies.

Tell your boyfriend he’s fucking dumb

Oh he knows

December 23 2:41pm

[5]  


**_\-------------------_ **

All For The Game  
_The Raven King_

As Neil and Andrew's story continues, they finally stop trying to gravitate around each other like two planets on a polar axis, and instead they become almost inseparable - gravitating together around the world that surrounds them. This is partially because Andrew takes his promises of protection very seriously, and partially because Neil won’t give up having a real home (for the first time in his entire life) for anything. 

Of course, as is the way of most stories, happiness and the pretense of safety cannot last forever. Before long, Neil is forced to choose between the impossible: Andrew’s well being, or Neil’s own safety. In the end, it was never really a choice at all.

So Neil does the only thing he can, what is best for the only person in the world who has offered to protect him without simultaneously hurting him.

_“I’ll watch him,” Neil said._

_Kevin turned to stare at him, and Andrew pushed Kevin out of the way so he could see Neil better. Neil had startled the smile off Andrew's face with that, but it was back in a heartbeat._

_"You?" Andrew asked. That was all he said, but that one word said enough._

_Neil didn't respond, content to wait Andrew out. It didn't take long. Andrew took a couple quick steps his direction and shoved Neil as hard as he could. Neil knew it was coming and tried to brace for it, but he still stumbled back a couple steps. One of the strangers started to speak, likely trying to call Andrew to order. Neil saw Wymack move in the corner of his eye, maybe waving the intervention off as unnecessary, but he didn't dare take his eyes off Andrew to check. When Andrew pushed him again Neil caught hold of his arms and pulled Andrew with him._

_"Oh, Neil," Andrew said, and switched into German. "You and I both know you have a dreadful sense of humor, so this can't be a joke. What do you think you're saying? What are you trying to do?"_

_"Take responsibility," Neil said in German._

_"Usually such a good liar," Andrew said, "but this time you aren't fooling anyone. Am I to believe you'll hold your ground if Riko comes at you? Maybe I'll come back and you won't be here anymore."_

_"If I was going to leave I would have done so at the banquet when Riko called me by my name," Neil said. "I won't lie and say I didn't think about it, but I decided to stay. I trusted you more than I was scared of him. So trust me now if you can. I'm not going anywhere. I'll take care of Kevin until you return."_

_"Trust you." Andrew enunciated each word like he'd never heard them before. He laughed curled his fingers tight around Neil's chin. "You lie, and lie, and lie, and you think I'll trust you with his life?"_

_"Then don't trust 'Neil'," Neil said. "Trust me."_

_"Oh, but who are you? Do you have a name?"_

_"If you need one, call me Abram."_

_"Should I believe that?"_

_"I'm named after my father," Neil said. "Abram is my middle name; it's the name my mother used when she was trying to protect me from his work." It was the name he went by at his little league practices so the coach would actually let him play. It was strange hearing it aloud when no one had called Neil “Abram” in eight years. “Ask Kevin if you don’t believe me. He would know.”_

_“Maybe I will.”_

_Neil waited, but Andrew didn't let go. With so many people watching them Neil couldn't lift his shirt. He did the next best thing and dragged one of Andrew's hands under the hem. He pressed Andrew's palm to the ugly scarring across his abdomen. Andrew's eyes dropped to Neil's shirt like he could see Neil's marred skin through the dark cotton._

_"Do you understand?" Neil asked. "Nothing Riko does will make me leave him. We will both be here when you get back."_

**_..._ **

_Andrew pulled free and folded his arms over his chest. He drummed the fingers of one hand on his bicep as he thought. Finally he laughed and turned away. He went back to Kevin’s side and grinned up at Kevin. Instead of asking about Neil’s name, he said in English, “It’ll have to do, won’t it?”_ [6]

Andrew leaves and Neil has to stand again on his own two feet, not only for himself, but also for Kevin who he has promised to protect. In the end Neil isn’t built to be a human shield, but he is willing to pay whatever price is asked, for the first people to offer him a home, he finds it is easier than expected to risk everything. When the price for their safety is pain, and suffering, and abuse, Neil is still more than willing to pay it.

_“What the fuck happened? Last I heard you were spending Christmas with your uncle.”_

_“I lied,” Neil said. “Andrew’s coming back to us on Tuesday, all right? If Easthaven hasn’t called Betsy yet to arrange his ride they will soon.”_

_“They called yesterday,” Wymack said. “What does Andrew have to do with this?”_

_“Everything that matters,” Neil said._ [7]

* * *

Ray finished the second book in the series right before summer came to an end. Soon she would be spending her days in the office researching and writing her thesis, and although her thesis still involved a large amount of reading - it was rarely for personal enjoyment.

As Ray found herself diving deeper and deeper into the crazy world of college sports, mafia fathers, and unexpected loyalties, she couldn’t help but feel a connection to Andrew. Underneath the surly attitude and the drug induced high - Ray had a lot in common with the angry, blond asshole.

Andrew’s difficulty to relate to his own twin brother was a point of fact Ray could empathize with on a visceral level. If it wasn’t completely impossible - particularly because the books had been written while Ray was still experiencing her own past - she would have thought Andrew’s background was fashioned after her own: a childhood hopping from foster home to foster home; a twin brother who she never knew how to communicate with, and who didn’t understand the choices Ray made in her life; a stint in juvie; and an extended period of time where she didn’t feel comfortable in her own skin.

Andrew Minyard was her fictional spirit animal.

* * *

_In some worlds the difference is time not space; in this one they are older. _

In this story there is a little girl. Despite her rocky start in life - a life she would not have been capable of living had fate not intervened - she is writing her story unscathed by her dark past. She is rambunctious and caring; she is happy and she is loved. She is not writing her story alone either, she has an older brother who is also her adoptive father, and she has a new neighbor who is also her friend. 

In this story there is a young man. He knows all too well the harm that can be caused by biological families, but he also knows the love that can exist in found families. He has learned that there is both good and bad in everyone (even his own mother), and although he is forever marked by the terrors of his past, he is also constantly filled with a hope for his future - and his sister’s. 

In this story there are actually two young men. The second is equally aware of the pain that can be cultivated even in non-biological families, but he also knows the love that is never ending in real families. He has learned first hand what it is to be a child unloved by adults, and he vows to never treat the children he meets as unimportant - especially the little girl who has inexplicably decided to be his newest friend. 

The story goes like this:

  
_As they ate in silence Andrew realized he felt comfortable in someone else’s space for the first time in a while. He took a moment to look over the apartment, taking stock of Zeus sleeping in the corner by the fireplace, the nest of blankets on the couch, the fort in front of the window. It looked like the all American dream. His thoughts were interrupted by a small hand tapping his shoulder._

_“Hey, Andrew?” Athena asked, leaving a bright red ketchup fingerprint on his black shirt, “hey, Andrew?”  
_

_“Yes?” he replied, surprised he hadn’t felt the need to flinch away from her touch.  
_

_“What’s your favorite dinosaur?” she asked, throwing another fry in her mouth._

_“Triceratops,” he took a sip of his juice, “or the giant shark one.”_

_“Meg el- mega- megadon?” she tried, looking annoyed at her failed attempts._

_“Megalodon,” Neil said._

_Athena pointed at Neil, beaming, “Yeah that!”_

_Andrew nodded. He thought of attempting to smile at the child, but neither of them had minded his blank face so far. “What’s your favorite dinosaur?”_

_Athena smiled at him like he’d given her an award. “I like the stegosaurus! Neil likes the velociraptor! He says they’re like evil turkeys.”_

_“Evil turkeys?”_

_Neil sighed looking embarrassed, “Yeah cause they’re the size of turkeys but they’re also predators. Like imagine being chased by a turkey that wants to eat you. That's a velociraptor.”_

_Laughing, Athena shook her head, “no silly, people weren’t alive then.”_

_“You haven’t seen Jurassic Park then,” Andrew said. He took another bite as he watched Athena laugh._

_“What's that?”_

_“It’s a scary dinosaur movie,” Neil paused to chew on the inside of his lip, “I think you’re too young to watch it.”_

_“Okay.”_

_Andrew looked at her surprised that she agreed without any further argument. As he watched her go back to eating he wondered if this was a normal dinner for them. Silence with just a bit of talking in the middle._

_When they were done eating they all cleared the table together, but Neil left the dishes sitting on the counter._

_“Can we watch a movie?” Athena asked, bouncing into the living room, “Andrew too!”_

_Neil checked the time on his watch and frowned, “It’s already five thirty. Ugh... Okay... Let’s go have you take a shower and brush your teeth and then we can watch a movie.”_

_He started walking toward the hallway, but Athena ran in front of him and put her arms out to stop him, “I can do it!”_

_“You’re going to do it all by yourself?” he asked. She nodded her head dramatically and smiled up at him, “Okay go for it.”_

_She ran down the hall loudly, causing enough commotion to make Zeus stir from his sleep. Neil rubbed his forehead and sat on one of the couches, patting the seat cushion, which Zeus took as an invitation to curl up next to him with his head on his lap. Standing off to the side Andrew watched as they settled in and Neil started petting Zeus._

_Catching his eye Neil tilted his head. “You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to.”_

_“I do not have anything better to do” Andrew shrugged._ [8]

The little girl is Athena, and she soon becomes a fixture in the second young man’s life. In fact, Athena and her brother Neil both become fixtures in Andrew’s life, so quickly and painlessly that it sometimes seems as if they had always been there. Their lives intertwine so seamlessly it is as if they were a puzzle - tailor made to fit together - Andrew’s pointed ends and straight lines complimented by Athena and Neil’s more rounded edges.

_“But I want to take pictures!” Athena whined.  
_

_Neil gave her an understanding smile and rubbed her cheek with his thumb. “I know baby bear. You can ask Gigi to take pictures on her phone and then we can print them out.”_

_Athena pouted but didn't argue. It didn’t last for long, as soon as Neil told her that Gigi was on her way up Athena dropped her frown and started running around the apartment, grabbing all of her gear. Coat, shoes, ice skates, and presents were all located just as they heard the knock on the door. Athena greeted her with a hug, but not the running and jumping kind she always gave Andrew. Seeing how she normally greeted adults she cared for put how much she adores him in perspective. He had heard from Neil and Randy that she like him more than she liked other adults, but seeing it in action was different. Until that point, Andrew hadn’t realized just how much they had all been drawn together. It was easy to downplay the significance and say it was all just because she was an excited six-year-old, but she was twice as excited now and had half the reaction than when Andrew got home from work every day._

_Neil gave Athena a hug and told her he loved her, then she turned to Andrew and pulled on his arm until he knelt down to her height._

_“Bye Daddy,” she said as she hugged him, “I love you.”_

_Andrew froze, unsure what to do next, until Neil mouthed ‘say it back’ at him. “I love you too buggy, have fun.”_

_She grabbed his cheeks and kissed his nose, then stood up and walked out the door. Looking rather confused, Randy followed behind her._

_“Thank you,” Neil said when they heard the elevator doors close. “She would have been really upset if you didn’t say it back.”_

_Andrew ran a hand through his hair, then went to the couch and sat down next to where Zeus was laying. Petting Zeus, he thought about his realization that Athena thought of him as more than another adult in her life, that maybe she meant it when she called him daddy._

_“This is a lot,” he said finally, looking at Zeus instead of Neil._

_“I know, you don’t have to do this,” Neil said. He sat on the couch and started petting Zeus too, carefully avoiding hitting Andrew’s hand as he did so. Andrew watched Neil’s hand for a moment, using the chance to read Neil’s body language from the corner of his eye. His body language read as surprisingly calm._

_“Do you like me?” Andrew asked. He finally managed to look up at Neil, just in time to see a confused look cross his face._

_“Yes?”_

_“Do you like like me?”_

_Neil huffed. “Are you twelve?”_

_“Yes,” Andrew said as he rolled his eyes, “you know what I meant.”_

_“Yes, Andrew.” Neil looked him in the eye. “I like you. I am physically attracted to you. I even like your terrible personality.”_

_Andrew huffed out a quiet laugh. He placed his hand palm up on Zeus’s side and spread his fingers, silently inviting Neil to take it. Neil did, standing up and pulling Andrew up too._

_“Come on,” Neil said as he started guiding Andrew down the hallway, “Zeus, you too.”_

_He led Andrew to his bedroom again, closing the door behind the dog and bringing them all over to his bed. First Zeus jumped up, claiming his place at the end, then Neil sat down against the headboard._

_“Come on,” he repeated, patting the spot next to himself. “I feel safer talking here. The living room is too big and open.”_

_**...** _

_“I’ve never been in a relationship before,” Andrew said after they’d sat in silence for nearly half an hour. His hand was warm and his sleeve was covered in fur, matching the bottoms of his pant legs._

_“Neither have I,” Neil said as he turned to look at Andrew._

_“We have to do this right.”_

_Neil looked confused, tilting his head and pursing his lips. “It’s been two days, we have plenty of time to figure it out.”_

_“What about Athena?” Andrew asked. Neil didn’t seem to be taking everything as seriously as he should be._

_“She already thinks we’re married.” Neil rolled his eyes. “I don’t want to tell anyone until I know what I’m doing, because I don’t want to mess anything up. Andrew, if you set a boundary I won't cross it. And I expect the same thing from you if I set a boundary. Other than that I don’t know what we need to talk about.”_

_Andrew picked up Neil’s hand and pulled it, drawing him in. “Yes or no?”_

_“Yes.”_

_Kissing was easier than thinking, and after so much talking Andrew needed a moment of peace to clear his head. They kept the kiss short, but it still left them both breathless._ [9]

Their story does not end here at the very beginning, as there is still a long way for three people to go when they attempt to fully merge their singular lives into one. But, their story is an ongoing one, one filled with beauty, and trust, and the joy that they find in a family they create for themselves.

* * *

It wasn’t much later that Ray’s world turned on its axis again and she found herself with an office mate. Talia was a mathematics grad student who was recently displaced by a set of disasters that affected the Ramanujan Building. Somehow, to Ray’s extreme displeasure, she had been stuck taking in one of the refugees. As the weeks and months with Talia dragged on, Ray couldn’t help but notice some similarities between Talia and the main character from her books - Neil.

She immediately dismissed that idea as ridiculous - the idle ramblings of an overly active mind. There were multiple badly dressed runaways in the world, and Ray was certainly just drawing connections where she wished them to be. Just because there was a budding romance between two fictional characters - one of which Ray could personally relate to, and the other which slightly resembled her current annoying office mate - did not mean that Talia would magically fall for Ray and become her happily ever after.

Ray’s disbelief in the connections between herself and Talia were only further justified when Kevin showed up one afternoon to bother her and Talia inexplicably actually engaged him in an argument about the relative merits of their individual fields of study. Kevin was the history grad student whose office was next to Ray’s, and if she was being honest she sometimes considered him a friend, but he was also usually the bane of her existence. The fact that his name happened to match one of the other characters in her recent book series was an irrelevant fact, even if that Kevin seemed just as annoying as this one tended to be.

In an effort to verbally knock both Kevin and Talia off of their aggravating, high horses - and because messing with Kevin was one of Ray’s most entertaining pastimes - Ray reminded both of them that neither of their fields of study were really worth anything at all if one couldn’t prove the current reality existed.

_“ ‘Fact’ is just a word,” she said. “Science itself is just a collection of words. Truth can exist beyond language, but only if reality itself existed.”_

_Kevin turned to her then, with an expression of complete bafflement. “What?”_

_...“She may have you there.”_

_Ray tried to ignore her. “It’s all just an illusion,” she said to Kevin, and Kevin alone. “History, science, everything. We tell ourselves how time works. You can imagine that there’s some tape-of-the-universe and when you play it backwards you can get to the portion of time we call ‘yesterday’. But the concept of yesterday only exists because we made it up. It’s not real. You can’t prove to me that yesterday or fifty years ago or a hundred years ago ever happened. Everything we tell ourselves to believe is simply fiction, a story.”_ [10]

That of course devolved into an argument, as it usually did. Kevin was not one to be outdone, at least not easily. In an effort to shut Kevin up for good, or at least for the day, Ray fell back on an argument she knew would annoy him: did they live in a multiverse or a universe created by deities?

It was an argument she had presented to Kevin in the past, and it never ceased to bother him. Unfortunately it didn’t have the same effect on Talia, who seemed oddly intrigued by the idea. Ray, however, had reflected on enough weird connections to fictional worlds and non-existent realities to explain the complex theories of the multiverse, or universes ruled by deities (especially as that was never her area of expertise, Ray always let Renee hypothesize on the theological side of things), so she shrugged off her office mate and adamantly returned her attention to her thesis.

Regrettably, it was not as easy to ignore her own thoughts as it was Talia. Once Ray had mentioned the multiverse, it was practically impossible to stop her subconscious from making correlations where none had existed before. Ray staunchly refused to believe in a God, or Gods, unwilling to put faith in a deity that at best had ignored her and left her alone to suffer in a world filled with monsters set on taking advantage of a forgotten, lonely child.

That only left the multiverse.

If she believed in the multiverse then there was a chance - albeit a slim one - that somehow, somewhere, in one of those smeared out existences, there was a version of Ray that could be Andrew Minyard - no matter how ridiculous that thought might be.

If Ray thought about that possibility too thoroughly it turned into a mind-fuck of epic proportions. Although she understood the idea of a multiverse, Ray was also a staunch believer in logic. Logic said that this reality, the one she was clearly observing of herself and the people around her, meant that if another universe did exist where Andrew Minyard was real, it was not a universe Ray would ever get to observe herself.

And, in this reality, it was not the first time Ray had read a fictional novel she could connect with; as an English Literature major, it would likely not be the last. Stories and characters came and went, some had more impact on her than others. Although Ray didn’t know if she truly believed in other universes that she couldn’t see, she had to admit she harbored a soft spot for the idea of a parallel world where Ray was Andrew Minyard, and was given a chance to grow and maybe find something - or someone - that the Ray of this universe secretly dreamed of everyday.

* * *

_  
In this universe God doesn’t exist, but angels do. _

There are countless stories of angels throughout space and time. Sometimes they appear as messengers or relayers of the Gods - constantly changing the fate of humanity to fit their whim; sometimes they are saviors and protectors - coming to earth to bestow their goodwill upon the people society has ignored and cast aside. Guardian angels, fairy godmothers, Cupid with his arrows, Hermes and his caduceus. 

Somewhere in the universe, there is a world, where angels exist, but God does not; angels are not heavenly messengers, or just another puppet of a deity playing with the fabric of humanity. Angels don’t only appear in the hour of greatest need - flitting in to fix people’s lives with their magic wands before disappearing again. Yet angels are not meant to exist in the same world as humans; they are human - and yet, they fundamentally are not. 

This is the story of that world where angels exist, and humans do too. The angels come in many forms: Angels of Mercy, Cupids, Angels of Death, Avenging Angels, Angels of Good Fortune. Unlike other stories, in this one the angels chose to use their divine powers for the good of humanity: as Neil has to enumerate to Andrew many times, they are there to _help._

_The next time that Andrew went out to his preferred club, he set his sights on the new bartender, Roland. The two of them seemed to hit it off, Roland plying Andrew with free drinks and taking Andrew into the staff room after his shift. Neil made sure that a piece of paper with Andrew's name and phone number found its way into Roland's pocket.  
_

_The next day Roland texted Andrew that they should hook up again sometime. Neil watched as Andrew blocked the number and deleted the text._

_"Oh, come on!" he shouted, manifesting in Andrew's living room. "It's like you're trying to be deliberately unhelpful!"_

_Andrew was off his couch in a flash, throwing a knife directly at Neil. Although Neil had made himself visible he hadn't made himself corporeal, so the knife passed harmlessly through him._

_"What the fuck?" said Andrew, his usual blank expression morphing into confusion. "What the fuck are you?"_

_"I'm your Cupid," said Neil impatiently. "And you're making my life very difficult right now!"_

_Andrew stared at him for another couple beats before shrugging and settling back on the couch, his back to Neil. "That checks out," he said._

_"Wait, that's it?" said Neil. "Humans are typically a lot more disbelieving when we show ourselves to them."_

_"What's not to believe? You appeared in my apartment out of thin air wearing nothing but white shorts and sporting pink, fluffy wings."_

_"Oh, for—" muttered Neil, looking down at himself. He never paid attention to his appearance when he was floating around invisibly and he'd forgotten about the stupid uniforms that Cupids wore. He snapped his fingers to dress himself in jeans and a hoodie. He couldn't do anything about the colour of his wings; colour denoted classification. He missed his usual sleek black feathers._

_"Here's the thing, Andrew," said Neil, circling the couch so Andrew could look at him without craning his neck, "I'm stuck with you until you fall in love. So if you could stop being so fucking stubborn and put in a little effort, I would really appreciate it."_

_"I have no intention of ever falling in love," said Andrew. "You can give up and flit off back to wherever you came from."_

_"No can do. I can't return to the Angelic Plain until I finish this assignment."_

_"And you called me stubborn."_

_"No, I physically can't. I'm trapped here until you fall in love or you die."_

_"Hope for the latter."_

_Neil let his eyes unfocus, gazing past Andrew's physical form to look at his lifeline. "Nope, sorry," he said. "You've got decades ahead of you. Wow, you're going to be old. For a human, I mean."_

_Andrew looked momentarily taken aback before regrouping. "Sucks for you. You probably shouldn't have decided to interfere in my life."_

_"Okay, one," said Neil, feeling great offense, "Angels don't interfere; they help.”_

_"You keep telling yourself that."_

_"And two," he continued, holding up two fingers to help make his point, "I'm only here because you asked me to be."_

_"I most certainly did not."_

_"Well of course you didn't; not consciously," said Neil, waving his hand. "But only people who want to fall in love but who need a little help get assigned Cupids. I assure you, I have all the proper paperwork."_

Despite Neil’s objections and best efforts, it takes a month to get Andrew to agree to let Neil _help_ him find love, and once he does it turns out Andrew’s compliance in the operation did not actually increase its likelihood of success.  


Neil sets Andrew up with more guys that he can count, he even goes so far as to create a Tinder profile for him to increase the number of potential matches. It fails, yet they keep trying. Once Neil had revealed himself to Andrew he didn’t disappear again, he enjoyed the human world much more when he could interact with it: mainly to eat its food and watch its television. It didn’t hurt that being corporeal meant Neil had someone besides himself to talk to, and Neil quickly became a semi-permanent part of Andrew’s life. A new roommate, and partial friends, or as friendly as two beings could be when one of them was human and the other was a sassy, immortal angel.

In Andrew’s mind, at least he made for an interesting roommate.

_Andrew always assumed that falling in love would be sudden. Like falling off a roof; his stomach in free-fall as he braced himself for the inevitable, shattering impact.  
_

_In the end, falling in love was so gradual that he didn't even notice at first and it felt like coming home._

_**...** _

_The routine was both domestic and familiar. Every so often Neil seemed to remember that he was supposed to be finding Andrew a boyfriend and would set him up on a date. Andrew went along with it without protest; he knew that at the end of the night he'd go home to Neil, which was what he wanted. He'd play along as long as it kept Neil with him. He wanted Neil to stay forever._

_"Queue up Netflix," Andrew called. "We'll watch the next episode while we're waiting."_

_Deafening silence was the only answer. Curious, he walked back into the living room, only to be met by emptiness. His phone lay on the couch, open to an in-progress call._

_"Neil?" he said, only to be met by absolute stillness. His apartment hadn't been this quiet since before Neil had first appeared._

_Andrew was fairly intelligent and he didn't believe in lying to himself so it didn't take him long to figure out what had happened. He had actually fallen for the one person who was guaranteed to disappear as soon as Andrew developed real feelings for him._

_"Well, fuck," he said into his empty apartment._ [11]

This story doesn’t end here, although it seems as if it should. Somehow, though, even in a world where angels exist on a separate plane of existence to humans; a world where angels spend their working hours _helping_ humans, Andrew and Neil still manage to fall for each other. It seems they always manage to fall for each other.

**_\-------------------_ **

All For The Game  
_The King’s Men_

When Andrew returns, more himself than he has been, and less than he was, no one knows how to handle it - except the only person who has always seen Andrew for who he was intrinsically, not who he was forced to be.

_Neil was the first out and he caught Andrew’s door before Andrew could close it. Andrew didn’t move, but there was just enough room for Neil to lean in and get his binder. He straightened and turned to find Andrew had shifted closer. There was nowhere for Neil to stand except up against Andrew, but somehow Neil didn’t mind. They’d been apart for seven weeks but Neil keenly remembered why he’d stayed. He remembered this unyielding, unquestioning weight that could hold him and all of his problems up without breaking a sweat. For the first time in months he could finally breathe again. It was such a relief it was frightening; Neil hadn’t meant to lean on Andrew so much._

_**...** _

_“You spend all this time watching our backs,” Neil said. “Who’s watching yours? Don’t say you are, because you and I both know you take shit care of yourself.”_

_“You have a hearing problem,” Andrew deduced. “Too many balls to the helmet, perhaps. Can you read lips?” Andrew pointed at his mouth as he spoke. “The next time someone comes for you, stand down and let me deal with it. Do you understand?”_

_“If it means losing you, then no,” Neil said._

_“I hate you,” Andrew said casually. He took a last long drag from his cigarette and flicked it off the roof. “You were supposed to be a side effect of the drugs.”_

_“I’m not a hallucination,” Neil said, nonplussed._

_“You are a pipe dream,” Andrew said. _[12]__

* * *

As Ray predicted, she had very little time to read the final book in the series once the school year had started. She’d only barely started it when she’d been informed she’d be sharing an office. Ray hated her office mate - or at least she told herself she did. She spent days, weeks, months, learning to deal with her muttering and passive aggressive attempts at confrontation, yet somewhere along the way she’d also become intrigued by the enigma that was Talia.

It went so far as to bother Ray when Talia didn’t come into the office one day; although her absence allowed Ray to pick up that final book for a couple hours without anyone questioning it. One sick day in the course of months was not uncommon; on the other hand, disliking the ensuing silence Ray’d been hoping for since Talia’s presence arrived in her life definitely was.

Maybe it was due to how acclimated Ray had become to her new officemate - out of necessity of course - or maybe it was because on some undefinable level she had actually missed Talia’s presence when she was gone, but Ray admittedly felt more settled once Talia returned.

That was until Talia asked her again about the multiverse. Just as the idea refused to leave Ray’s brain, it seemed to be similarly stuck in Talia’s. So Ray finally agreed to explain the idea of the multiverse to Talia, in exchange for the thing Ray loved best: a story.

So Talia told Ray her story, the one of a runaway, a nobody who became somebody, or was trying to. It wasn’t wholly dissimilar to Ray’s own story - and if Ray was being honest, it was also eerily similar to that of Neil Josten. Ray normally didn’t believe in coincidences, but her only other option was to believe that a book series whose two main characters seemed to be a parallel universe version of herself and her office mate, so coincidence was her best working theory.

Ray refused to mention the books she was reading to Talia, but she was content to explain the nuances of the multiverse to her in the slight hope that maybe Talia would find some connections, some other explanation that Ray was currently missing. Thus their relationship evolved from passive aggressive office mates to friends: two girls sharing bits of their life stories for a brief understanding of pieces of the universe.

Admittedly filling up more of her mind with thoughts of the multiverse - books and pages of Talia’s research into Theodore Kaluza, Einstein, Oscar Klein, and other mathematicians and philosophers who had attempted, in their times, to understand the minutiae of the universe - did not assist Ray in her attempt to move past the connections she had been drawing between herself and the fictional characters she was reading about. Yet Ray couldn’t stop herself from remembering everything about Talia’s research, so instead of trying to ignore her own current fascination with the multiverse, Ray instead immersed herself in Talia’s work. Ray helped Talia draw connections from the mathematicians she had researched to her own, ongoing research; she listened to her practice her speech so many times they both had it memorized word for word; she spent her free time shopping, and eating, and just talking with Talia.

Ray thought that maybe if she spent all her time helping Talia with her research, or writing her own thesis - maybe she wouldn’t have to address the pieces of her books that were bleeding slowly into her reality. And maybe she also wouldn’t have to admit that she actually enjoyed spending all her time with Talia.

At first the similarities between her reality and the books were subtle - it was Ray smoking hand-rolled cigarettes while sitting on her office window-sill when a flash of her imagination pictured Andrew smoking a cigarette on the roof in Palmetto. Then it was buying Talia a cell phone, Ray purposefully setting her ringtone as the one Andrew gave Neil - a personal “fuck you” to the multiverse that was currently messing with her grasp of reality.

As the small pieces of Ray’s worlds continued to overlap, Ray saw them slowly seeping into the moments she spent getting to know Talia. They had long since abandoned the exchange of Talia’s story for Ray’s expertise on cosmology, and had settled on a friendship built of truths given freely to each other.

* * *

_  
There are many parallel worlds; this time they start as neighbors._ **  
**  
Sometimes, as stories evolve and change over time, they diverge from the original tale into something completely different - and yet exactly the same. Sometimes this is the storyteller, sometimes it is the characters, sometimes it is the story itself. 

In this corner of this particular universe it starts like this: Neil hates his neighbor. For reasons that change depending on the time of day, and Neil’s forgiving mood. At first it is his neighbor’s boots - stomping up and down the stairs at all hours of the day and night. Next it is his neighbor’s door - slamming closed at 3 a.m. despite the ridiculousness of the time. Finally it is his neighbor’s style - spiked, bright blue hair, nose and ears filled with piercings, and pants so tight they threaten to rip as they stretch across the guy’s thighs.

It all comes to a head when Neil is stuck at home on a holiday Monday and he is forced to confront his neighbor over the blaring, mind-deafening music that seeps down from the third floor of Neil’s apartment building. Neil learns many things that Monday, the most important of which: his neighbor’s name is Andrew, and Neil definitely does not hate him.

__  
_Neil pounded on the door, waited, pounded again. Then he noticed a doorbell - why did he have a doorbell? Neil didn’t have a doorbell - so he pressed that, too. Neil waited a moment and was about to press the doorbell again when suddenly the door swung open. The music hadn’t stopped, it still wailed around them, and Neil realized with startling clarity that it wasn’t coming from this apartment.___

_Neighbor stood in front of him, but he also didn’t. This was….this was him, but. But. He stood in front of Neil, wearing faded black jeans, a soft looking grey sweater draped over his muscular upper body. He had a pair of tortoiseshell frames perched on his nose and a book in his hand. Most importantly though - most shockingly - was his face. All of the metal was gone, save for one small stud peeking out of the shell of his ear, and his hair - his hair - was blond - so so blond - flopping over an undercut, with only the very hint of a shadow of blue if you strained to see it. Neil’s mouth dropped open and he just. Stood there. Holy fuck._

_**...** _

_Neil’s feet were plastered to the floor - this was a whole lot different from the picture of Neighbor - of Andrew - he had in his head. Andrew turned back to him, pausing to pull something out of each pocket before reaching up to fiddle with his ears. He tilted his head for a second then pinned Neil with a look again._

_“Seth and I have an agreement on Mondays - his band comes to practice here, because no one is here during the day except me.”_

_“And you don’t care because-”_

_“Because I am deaf,” Andrew interrupted._

_“But-” Neil started._

_“I read lips really well.” Andrew said, taking a step back closer to Neil. “And the hearing aids help, when I wear them.”_

_Neil felt his ears reddening again. “Your hair,” he started again weakly. He knew maybe he should be focusing on something else right now, but he just couldn’t get past the hair._

___One side of Andrew’s mouth ticked up in amusement. “What is your name?” he asked.  
_ _ _

_“Neil.”_

_The other side ticked up in what could almost be a smile. “Neil,” he repeated carefully. “I am Andrew. Do you want to come in?”_

_Oh shit. Neil really did. Goddamned Allison._

_The inside of Andrew’s apartment was cozy - there was no other word for it. Bookshelves lined practically every square inch of the walls, and there was a desk shoved up under the main window in the living room with an actual desktop computer - who even had those anymore? - along with scraps of paper and Moleskin notebooks lining most of the space around the keyboard. A beat-up old corduroy sofa sat in the middle of the room, and a giant, clearly state-of-the-art, flat-screen TV hung on the wall._

_Andrew set his book down on the coffee table. Neil glanced at it but he didn’t recognize the title. He hummed a little nervously, then looked up to find Andrew standing with a hip propped against the back of the couch, watching him curiously. “So. You can go ahead with the questions if you want,” Andrew said. “Get it out of the way.”_

_“Where did all of your piercings go?” Neil blurted out in response._

_Andrew’s face tensed for a minute then smoothed out. “That’s not what I meant.”_

_“Oh. What did you mean then?” Neil asked. He felt a bit unmoored, not even sure what conversation he was in._

_Andrew waved nonchalantly at his left ear, “About my hearing, idiot. Or lack thereof as the case may be.”_

_“Oh,” Neil said again, then shrugged. “I’d rather know where your piercings and your hair went.”_

_Andrew gazed at him for long enough that Neil started to worry he’d fucked up, and then suddenly, surprisingly, Andrew laughed. It was a quiet thing, a soft huff of sound, but he laughed, and for a moment his face transformed. It was over before it had even registered, and Neil found himself already missing it. Whatever even that was about._

_“Sit down Neil,” Andrew said, tilting his head towards the sofa before walking around to settle on one end of it. Neil sat at the other end, his feet planted firmly on the floor, a whole couch cushion separating them. Neil stared at the wall in front of him._

_“Neil,” Andrew said again. He drew out the sound of his name carefully and Neil liked it._

_“Yeah?” Neil asked, distracted by the fact that he liked hearing Andrew say his name._

_“Neil you have to face me, I need to see your lips,” he said. He sounded amused._

_Oh fuck. Neil adjusted his position quickly, tucking one leg up underneath him and facing Andrew straight on. He wasn’t normally this stupid, and he felt his cheeks burning again. He blamed it on the chameleon in front of him._

_“I work as a bartender downtown,” Andrew finally said. “At the Dashing Pony.”_

_Neil nodded at him. It was a music venue - mostly punk and metal and whatnot. Nothing Neil had ever been into so he’d never been inside._

_“The clothes and all of this,” Andrew waved a hand over his face and hair, “it is just for work.”_

_Neil nodded again. “Okay. It’s just a little confusing is all.”_

_Andrew gazed at him. “What is confusing?”_

_Neil spoke before he could think about what he was saying, “I don’t know; I thought I hated it but now I miss it.”_

_“You miss it,” Andrew repeated._

_Eh, fuck. Maybe Neil shouldn’t have said that, but around Andrew he kinda didn’t know what he was going to say before it fell out of his mouth. “It’s like you are a whole different person from the one I have been…” Neil trailed off, dropping his gaze down._

_“I did not catch that, Neil. I need to be able to see your face.”_

_Neil snapped his head up. “Fuck, I’m sorry.”_

_Andrew shook his head, “You do not have to be sorry, it takes time to get used to.” Neil nodded again, careful not to drop his gaze from Andrew’s. It was a bit - intense - like this. “Now,” Andrew continued. “I am a whole different person than what?”_

_Neil searched for words but he couldn’t find them. “Just different than I thought,” he finished lamely._

_Andrew nodded slowly, thoughtfully. “Is it a bad different?” he asked._

_Neil shook his head just as slowly. “No.” It wasn’t bad but, well, he just wasn’t sure what it was._

_“Okay,” Andrew said after a minute, and he reached to the table for the remote. “I was going to watch Lord of the Rings. Do you want to stay?”_

_Neil hated movies. “Yes,” he said, without hesitation. What?_

_“Okay,” Andrew said again, scrolling through titles on the screen he’d just turned on. “I hope you like subtitles.”_

Neil soon passes all his free time after that day doing one of three things: spending time with Andrew, thinking of Andrew and when he could see him next, or texting Andrew. The more Neil gets to know his neighbor, the more he wants to know about his neighbor. They start trading bits of their backgrounds and their lives with each other, sometimes over text, sometimes over food and viewings of Lord of the Rings movies:

_On Wednesday Neil didn’t bother to press the little button next to Andrew’s door, instead sending him a text that he was there. The door swung open and Neil grinned, holding up the cardboard carrier in one hand; two matcha lattes and some scones and cookies tucked in around them._

_Andrew almost smiled as he stepped back from the door. “Hey,” he said. Neil could see he’d already put his hearing aids in before opening the door._

_“Hi,” Neil said, feeling a bit shy but pushing through it. “These are my favorite - Matcha lattes and, um - some scones…” he trailed off because Andrew was looking at him with confusion._

_“What kind of lattes?” he asked, his voice even._

_“Matcha,” Neil said again. Andrew shook his head at him and pressed his lips together in a line. “You don’t like them?” Neil asked, feeling stupid._

_Andrew shook his head again, “No, I don’t know what you said and…” he paused, turned to close the door behind Neil. “I don’t know what you said and I don’t want to ask you to repeat it again,” he bit out._

_“Oh,” Neil said, and then, brighter, “OH!” He sat the carrier down on the coffee table and turned back to Andrew, sucking his bottom lip in between his teeth as he concentrated, raised one hand and carefully signed the letters, “M - A - T - C - H - A.”_

_Andrew’s face had gone completely blank as he stared back at Neil. Neil dropped his hand back down, feeling his ears heating up - why were parts of his face always on fire around Andrew? “I-” Neil started to say, but Andrew took two big steps towards him, pressed his thumb against his lips to stop him, and Neil stilled._

_Andrew pulled his thumb away and dragged it across Neil’s cheek right under his burn scars, then wrapped his fingers around the back of his neck. Neil thought that hand might be the only thing keeping his knees from buckling._

_Andrew’s golden eyes flicked down to Neil’s lips and back up to his eyes and he said, so softly, “I want to kiss you.”_

_Something clicked into place in Neil’s chest. “I want to kiss you too,” he said._

_Then Andrew was leaning towards him, and Neil softened and leaned down to meet him, and it was Andrew’s lips on his lips where his thumb had been and Neil sighed into it, his mouth opening just a little as Andrew captured his bottom lip. He pushed his fingers into Neil’s hair, as he swept his tongue hungrily against Neil’s and stole a small moan out of his throat, and then, just as quickly, it was over._

_Andrew pulled back, dropping his hand from Neil’s hair. “You learned the ASL alphabet,” he said._

_Neil nodded, not sure he could speak yet._

___“You are quite the pipe dream, you know that?” Andrew huffed quietly._ [13]  
_ _

* * *

When the day for Talia’s research presentation came, Ray tried to convince herself she wasn’t going to attend - she even snuck into the back of the auditorium (admittedly before the presentation was even set to start) in an effort to convince herself she would leave as soon as the physical presentation was over. She even pretended not to pay close attention to Talia’s every point - noting when she missed a crucial piece of her work, and making a point of asking a question about it in the follow up.

However, there was only so much lying Ray could do to herself, especially when she had an eidetic memory, so it wasn’t surprising that Ray’s illusions fell apart as soon as Talia approached her after the presentation, genuinely thanking her for her help. Ray tried to play down the warmth building in her chest at the genuine gratitude in Talia’s voice, but it was impossible to ignore Talia when she insisted on telling Ray just how much she understood and appreciated her.

It was a startling realization when Ray recognized that just as she had gotten to know everything about Talia in the last couple months, so Talia had learned about Ray. No matter how much she pretended to protest - she couldn’t ignore the amazing feeling of being known.

___“What did I tell you about trying to figure me out?” Ray asked instead.  
_ _ _

_“You said you’d carve my skin from my body and hang it as a warning to other people, but you didn’t tell me to stop.”_

_“It was implied.”_

_“I’m stupid, remember? I need things spelled out.”_

_“Shut up.”_

_“Am I at ninety-one yet? Or does this percentage increase exponentially?”_

_“I’m not a math problem.”_

___“But I’ll still solve you.”_ [10]  
_ _

Suddenly Ray’s world collided with the fictional one she’d loved so much, and there was nothing she could do to stop one from overlapping with the other. Suddenly everything she had read about, and internally wished for, became a startling reality with Talia’s whispered, “Yes,” when Ray leaned in to kiss her. Ray was no longer stuck inside herself - fighting her own thoughts, trying to drown her wanting in science, and research, and mathematics. She was inexplicably present, here, in her own reality. She no longer cared if that reality bore a shocking resemblance to a fictional world, because she finally had everything she had been dreaming of - coincidences, and similarities, and parallel universes be damned.

For days, and then weeks, and then months, Talia stayed in Ray’s universe, in her current reality: sharing her office, spending her free time together, giving her _“yes”_ after _“yes”_ when Ray stole kiss after kiss. But as Ray had believed from the beginning, whatever was growing between her and Talia was always meant to be short lived - Talia was always meant to return to her own world, her own office, her original life.

_“Do you want me to go?” she asked quietly._

_Ray took another drag of her cigarette to give her time to formulate her response. She hadn’t expected Talia to need Ray to give her such explicit permission to leave. She decided to ignore the question and ask one of her own. “What’s the alternative?”_

___Talia moved her keyboard from her lap and turned around to face her. The denim pattern of Ray’s jeans were imprinted on Talia’s left cheek, but it would fade as fast as Talia’s memories of the last eight months. Ray would remain some anecdote in a story about Talia’s time at PSU, a brief story about the woman she shared an office with when planning her research on the multiverse. In the books she would publish, there would be chapters upon chapters of possible universes out there, and perhaps one of these universes contained a world where Talia Josten and Ray Minyard’s story didn’t end here._ [10]_ _

* * *

All For The Game  
_The King’s Men_

After everything spins chaotically out of control, after Neil offers himself up, _again_ ,in defense of his new family, Andrew and Neil are left in the wreckage to try to pick up the pieces left behind- the remnants of all their games, all their truths and stories and deals, scattered around them like shrapnel after a fire fight.

Somehow when the chaos begins to slow, and the questions slowly thin away, Andrew and Neil are left to figure out where they stand in the new world they’ve created; they find they’re exactly where they were before it all tried to fall apart: together.

_Neil smiled where Andrew couldn’t see it. Maybe Andrew felt the twist of his lips against oversensitive skin, because he tangled his fingers in Neil’s hair and pulled his head away. Andrew put a hand flat against Neil’s abdomen and pushed, backing Neil up until he was out of the spray and pressed flat against slick, chilly tile._

_Andrew bit the question into the corner of Neil’s jaw, “Yes or no?”_

_“It’s always yes with you,” Neil said._

_“Except when it’s no,” Andrew said._

_Neil put a plastic-wrapped finger to Andew’s chin, guiding his head up for another kiss. “If you have to keep asking because--I’ll answer it as many times as you ask. But this is always going to be yes.”_

_“Don’t always’ me.”_

_“Don’t ask for the truth if you’re just going to dilute it.”_ [14]

* * *

Ray is wrong and her and Talia's story doesn’t end there. It ends just like every other story of Andrew and Neil, with two people who, given the choice to walk away, choose to stay together. 

As if fate, given enough time, will always wind back around to the same conclusion. In every universe, in every story, in every other time and place - where Andrew and Neil exist simultaneously on an Exy court, in a dreamscape, on post it notes, in a world of angels with bubblegum pink wings, with a six year old in a penthouse in NYC, and in an apartment drinking matcha lattes - they will always end up exactly where they belong: together.

It all starts and ends with a story, as it was always meant to. Universes start and end with a story; this particular one ends here - at least for now - but as is often the case with stories like this that transcend the very bounds of time and space, this may just be the very beginning.

** A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.-Jean de La Fontaine **

**Author's Note:**

> Talk to me, in comments, on tumblr, where ever. :) 
> 
> 1The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakovic, Chapter 4[return to text]  
> 2The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakovic, Chapter 8[return to text]  
> 3[Written in the scars of our hearts](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23256460/chapters/55690600) by [DeyaAmaya](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeyaAmaya/pseuds/DeyaAmaya), Chapter 2[return to text]  
> 4The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakovic, Chapter 14[return to text]  
> 5[Post Its and Missing Persons](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25515547) by [nerdzword](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdzeword/pseuds/nerdzeword)[return to text]  
> 6The Raven King by Nora Sakovic, Chapter 13[return to text]  
> 7The Raven King by Nora Sakovic, Chapter 16[return to text]  
> 8[Ember](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18741793/chapters/44456701) by [Autumnalpalmetto](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Autumnalpalmetto/pseuds/Autumnalpalmetto), Chapter 3[return to text]  
> 9[Ember](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18741793/chapters/49676921) by [Autumnalpalmetto](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Autumnalpalmetto/pseuds/Autumnalpalmetto), Chapter 21[return to text]  
> 10[Me, you, and the multiverse](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24541006) by [Wishbonetea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wishbonetea/pseuds/wishbonetea)[return to text]  
> 11[I’m with Cupid](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17782940) by [Gluupor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gluupor/pseuds/gluupor)[return to text]  
> 12The King’s Men by Nora Sakovic, Chapter 1[return to text]  
> 13[Neil’s Guide to Stalking Your Neighbor](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24442378) by [Justadreamfox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/justadreamfox/pseuds/justadreamfox)[return to text]  
> 14The King’s Men by Nora Sakovic, Chapter 15[return to text]


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